American Life in Poetry: Column 521

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE

Amanda Strand is a poet living in Maryland. I like this poem for its simplicity, clarity and directness. No frills to decorate it, just the kind of straightforward accounting of an experience that Henry David Thoreau said he looked for in an author.

Father and Daughter

The wedding ring I took off myself,his wife wasn’t up to it.I brought the nurse into the roomin case he jumped or anything.“Can we turn his head?He looks so uncomfortable.”She looked straight at me,patiently waiting for it to sink in.

The snow fell.His truck in the barn,his boots by the door,flagpoles empty.It took a long time for the taxi to come.“Where to?” he said.“My father just died,” I said.As if it were a destination.